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Violent Episode Shocks British Soccer, Sparks Debate

By Benji Lanyado August 28, 2009 1:22 pmAugust 28, 2009 1:22 pm

When West Ham drew Millwall in the second round of the Carling Cup, England’s secondary cup competition, there were audible gasps in the Sky Sports studio. Separated by two divisions, West Ham and Millwall rarely come head to head, but their historic rivalry is one of the fiercest in global soccer.

The match, which took place on Tuesday night, finished 3-1 to east London’s West Ham, but little attention has been paid to the score. Before the game there were large-scale disturbances on Green Street, a thoroughfare made famous by the eponymous 2005 film in which Elijah Wood played an American caught up in the rivalry between the London rivals. Amateur footage obtained by the Telegraph shows riot police attempting to control the crowds:

In a separate incident at the rear of the stadium, a 44-year old man was stabbed in the chest, although his injuries were not life-threatening. The trouble continued inside, with numerous disturbances and three pitch invasions captured by the Sky Sports cameras:

It wasn’t difficult to see this coming. West Ham and Millwall’s rivalry stretches over 120 years, dating back to clashes between the two clubs shortly after their inception as the sporting wings of rival dockside industries — West Ham born from the mess halls of the Thames Ironworks shipbuilding firm, and Millwall from JT Morton’s canned food factory. Their animosity was fueled in the 1920s when Millwall-supporting shipyard workers refused to observe a general strike, and was further catalyzed by the bitter gangster feuds of the 1960s between east London’s Kray family and the Richardsons of south London.

But despite the history of violence between the two clubs, the events represented a rare outburst. Riots were a once institutional problem that has been largely eradicated since the ’70s and ’80s, when the British game was ravaged by frequent and large-scale fan violence.

Seeing hooliganism return to the limelight, officials were quick to condemn the events. The Football Association called for life bans for perpetrators of the violence, Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe suggested that West Ham be ejected from the Carling Cup, and Home Secretary Alan Johnson vowed that a hooligan minority would not be allowed to “shame the name of football”. Alleged racist chants aimed at West Ham’s Carlton Cole added a further layer of outrage.

The British press has gone into overdrive, picking through the aftermath with a flurry of critique. The Times of London has so far run 17 articles on the ugly scenes, the most notable of which contains former pro Tony Cascarino suggesting that “[W]e’re kidding ourselves if we don’t think it’s still widespread and serious. Nice stadiums and high ticket prices hide it, they haven’t stopped it.”

Other commentators saw the events as part of a larger social picture. In one of the Guardian’s 16 articles, former editor Peter Preston argued that the problem is people, not soccer. “Unemployment is up, even on City trading floors, where some of the street-fighters come from. So are poll-ratings for the BNP… They’re back because a surly, divided society is back.” The Independent’s James Lawton echoed those thoughts in one of 12 separate articles, stating that “[w]hat happened in West Ham this week was not a sign of an imperiled sport but an unraveling nation.”

West Ham fans, deemed largely responsible for the evening’s problems, debated heatedly on the boards of their most active forum, KUMB. One poster attempted to put the events into perspective, lamenting that “while there were a few so-called West Ham fans running onto the pitch, there was a hell of a lot more booing them, and shouting at them to get off the pitch. As usual it’s the small minority that seem to make the headlines.”

Further calls to put the evening’s events into perspective came from an authoritative source, Cass Pennant, a former “firm leader” who wrote an extraordinary article in yesterday’s Guardian calming fears of an upsurge in hooliganism. “It really is under the control of the football authorities, unlike in the ’70s and ’80s when we, the firms, ran the show.” His thoughts were corroberated by statistics offered by the Guardian’s David Conn, showing that football-related arrests have almost halved in the past 10 years, and that these arrests represent a mere 0.01% of all football supporters attending games.

Tuesday’s scene rounded off one of the most emotional weeks in West Ham’s recent history. Defender Callum Davenport’s career is hanging in the balance after he was stabbed at his home early Saturday morning, an incident followed the next day by midfielder Jack Collison’s father dying in a road accident on his way to see West Ham’s match with Spurs.

At West Ham’s next game, an away tie against Blackburn Rovers, everyone will be hoping that soccer returns to center stage.

It’s simple. If fan violence gets out of control then teams play in empty stadiums. This could destroy the revenue of the clubs involved, thereby making the perpetrators very unpopular. In Europe there is really only one sporting option–football. Take that away and fans will demand action against those who act violently.

In the United States major sports and the emerging MLS depend primarily on TV for Revenue. In the United Kingdom, most games are not televised, thus stadium, concession and club merchandise are vital. Who wants to be responsible for financially destroying the club they proclaim to love?
This is not a new idea. It has been used with success in other countries. However, we must credit British authorities for excellent results in curbing football related violence. The United Kingdom and Europe seem to have much domestic division between communities. The United Kingdom: Sunderland-Newcastle (this dates back to Cromwell –again religion) Rangers-Celtic (religion), Millwal-West Ham (economics).

There is division in the United States as well, but is more bragging rights and regional rivalry. The United States had issues during Jim Crow and segregation. We should never forget courage of Jackie Robinson. Imagine going to work every day and people wanting you to fail. He did not. He was a giant among his peers. Sporting nations and fans everywhere could learn much from his example of class and self control.

A great, great book to read regarding English football hooligans is by Bill Buford that came out back in 1993: “Among the Thugs”.
It follows a group of Manchester United fans through a season in the early 1990’s. Although it’s a sports book it should truly be categorized as “horror” because what takes place is absolutely terrifying.

It’s back !
Well on the back pages at least.
Many will opine as to whether a 30 year old English disease ( thought to be erradicated ) has broken out in East London. Early hysterical reports suggested the end of the world as we know it.
I am much more sanguine about it. Every soccer playing country has, to various degrees, fans who hate, loath, and despise certain teams.
This fixture was always going to be trouble, as would say, hypothetically, Nato United FC vs Taliban City Caves.
I believe the incident is now over and we will not see any similar symptoms for the remainder of this season and beyond.

This was a fixture accident waiting to happen. Two sides who are bitter local rivals with an acrimonious history going way back, through the separation of divisions, hadn’t played each other for 15 years.

So here we have a cup game, where the levels of emotion go through the roof. From what I’ve heard the atmosphere was electric. So it’s not surprising things got out of hand and it’s a shame it all ended in violence. But that doesn’t mean it’s a return to the 80’s. The police have too much experience and gathered intelligence for that to happen.

re: second pbjmahwah’s comment on Bill Buford’s book
“Among the Thugs”.

An American author and journalist with an outsiders eye has written a book that is genuinely
enlightening on the nature of hooliganism and crowd violence during a time when it was particularly bad in England. By turns thrilling and frightening. His research was first hand, an intelligent man pulled in by the buzz of it.
It’s a valuable sociological account trying to analyse what is a gnarly, complex problem.

A real page turner. I think I’ll dig it out again and give it another read.

This is all the more reason the World Cup should NOT be hosted by them as they are the HQ for hooliganism. How can fans from other countries attend when you have British thugs crawling the streets waiting to start a fight, stab people, potentailly kill those they deem the enemy.

Millwall were coming on West Ham’s manor. It was an obvious meet. Every footie fan would expect nothing else. Had it been for e.g. Birmingham City v Aston Villa or Swansea City v Cardiff City the same may well have happened. There were still rucks last season but these were reported only in the local press. Its never gone away it rumbles like a smoking volcano. The Norwich firm (NHS) went to the outskirts at Leicester (Leicester Youth) and had a toe-toe outside a pub, but nothing was reported. Don’t let the authorities kidd you.

I had friends attend the match at Azteca, and true, their was no stabbing, however, he felt threatened at every moment. Why American would want to travel to that stadium given the horrible climatic conditions is a mystery to me. This point is true. When they went to the subway station to return to their hotel, the Mexican police advised them they would not be safe traveling by subway, so a police wagon drove them to within walking vicinity of their hotel and safety.

I have attended many Intl soccer games at Giants Stadium and the level of violence is generally isolated and low threat levels. That is the way it should be. It is true, we have our moments of stupidty after victory, (college primarily) and some vandalism, but never to the extent of European Football. Hatred in Europe runs deeper as their history exceeds our own. Primarily religious. Religious Freedom is why many imigrated to the United States.

As far as i am concerned that contribution was far from one !
Smoking volcanoes don’t rumble, they do that as they errupt.
Using your analogy, English Soccer seismologists are clueless about the next Krakatoa ?
Kidded by your portent of doom i am not !

“This is all the more reason the World Cup should NOT be hosted by them as they are the HQ for hooliganism. How can fans from other countries attend when you have British thugs crawling the streets waiting to start a fight, stab people, potentailly kill those they deem the enemy.

— John A”

Well next year the World Cup is being hosted in South Africa, in case you haven’t noticed, which is hardly the safest place there is. You obviously don’t understand how hooliganism works, it’s not just groups of blokes running around fighting anyone they happen to come across, it’s pre-meditated. Besides, if England is lucky enough to host the World Cup it won’t be West Ham and Millwall playing each other!
This kind of violence isn’t common in the British game and this particular fixture was always going to invite trouble. When you compare hooliganism in this country (England) to other major footballing countries, you realise how far we’ve come and as someone who has attended games both here and abroad I feel that this country is as safe an environment as any to be a supporter.

football violence has never left the game, it has left the grounds but not the game, nearly every game there our sets of rival fans fighting, just not in the stadiums and therefore doesn’t get reported.

Also these fans have already arranged to meet between themselves, and the attack of any innocent supporter is strictly against the rules, there are not mindless thugs as the media portrays, they know what they are doing

Football Hooliganism is not on the rise in England,it has never gone away. Every club has a mob/crew, and it is especially bad in the Leagues below the Premiership.

The Banning Orders (which are usually 3 years long,but can go to 10 years) prevent 3000 plus supporters from attending matches,both club and England away games.

When there is trouble involving a Premiership sides fans,the Press are all over the story. But trouble does break out all over the Country between the lesser known sides etc,and that hardly gets a mention.

The number of England fans that may be venturing to south Africa, are in the range of 80,000 – 100,000. So that should be interesting to say the least.

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